Eye on Palestine, arts and film festival

Eye on Palestine, arts and film festival (B)

Partner

Eye on Palestine is a festival that promotes quality and stimulating Palestine-related film and arts in Belgium.

Born in 2010 the festival has grown from an exclusively film based program to one that also includes visual and live arts, theater and music performances along with lecture and debates.

Eye on Palestine offers a platform for artist to express their views on the Palestinian reality.
At the same time the festival wants to inject the belgian cultural world with critical and important work that is rarely seen in commercial circuits. The festival takes Palestine to Belgium by bringing the audience together with young and established Palestinian and international directors, artist, writers, musicians, scholars and activists.

Eye on Palestine is a non-profit social and cultural project realised by a wide range of Belgian organizations and institutions and many volunteers.

Related Members

The Open Studio is a center in Khan Younis where knowledge and know-how are exchanged. Khan Younis is a small town in Gaza with a large refugee camp that has existed for over 60 years and is still growing. It is an Islamic Arab culture that has been cut-off from the outside world; the largest prison on earth. If the political situation allows, artists from abroad visit the Open Studio to participate and teach.

The Palestinian Art Court – Al Hoash is a Palestinian non-profit art organization based in Jerusalem, established in 2004. Al Hoash provides a knowledge-based platform for both emerging and established artists in Palestine to express, explore, realize and strengthen their national and cultural identity through visual practice. Al Hoash programs and its’ gallery provide a space for artists to showcase innovative and significant works. It promotes the interaction between the artists and the audience, encouraging them to acquire understanding and appreciation of artistic production.
Al Hoash has been exploring new approaches by introducing the concept of creative place making,
an initiative that makes art more accessible to the masses, where participants use creative processes to interact in public spaces. Moreover it helps communities rediscover and strengthen their relationship with their surroundings.

"The societal importance lies in the fact that they manage to publicize the Palestinian people as people, with a culture and to put them in a better perspective while giving it a broad exposure. Normally, Palestinian identity always get a very strange and rather negative kind of coverage in the mainstream media.

Until a couple of years ago, I was directly involved in an embroidery studio for women with disabilities, so I can only speak from that field of expertise, but I noticed that people here do much to keep their crafts alive, even though a lot is still happening on an individual level, at private homes. But when Annelies visited the studio, looking for our collaboration, she asked from the girls to do something different, to leave the beaten track and many were pleasantly challenged by this.

What touched me most was witnessing the pride that these young women had when doing the work. They felt that someone was really appreciating what they were doing. The moral impact on these young women is quite significant; they were really delighted to be part of it and they feel good about it."(From Kurt Vanbelleghem interview, Can one really benefit from a social design project, or is it just another spin at the wheel?)

Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans (BFTA) is a non-profit NGO established in 2009. It works to spread the fair trade message in Palestine and links Palestinian producers to global fair trade markets. In 2015, BFTA became the first guaranteed member of World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) in the Middle East. WFTO is the largest global network advocating Fair Trade principles.

Our group eltiqa was founded in winter 2002, when our thoughts converged towards the idea of "Art for Art’s Sake". Progressing in this direction we focus on modern and contemporary art. Our goal consists in emitting a distinctive shade, in order to create a Palestinian modern and contemporary Art movement. Through thevsdh diversity of our ideas and techniques, our perception of art is multicultural.
We, as Palestinian artists, with limited resources, succeeded in forming a body in order to help each other and develop this idea by our own means, despite our extremely difficult living conditions. We decided not to let such conditions discourage us from the achievement of our ambitions. Our attachment to this idea is very sharp. Through our artistic activities we lead our society to love culture. Our commitment: to continue the struggle against these very harsh conditions and obstacles, by using the nicest colors and the simplest language.

Contemporary art is an important field of creativity that contributes to local society and global culture, in which it is essential for Palestinians to represent themselves. It is a vehicle of expression where individuals critically engage with a wide range of issues in many different forms. At IAAP our aim is to provide our students with the opportunity to gain a solid foundation in the mediums and methods of working in the visual arts through our curriculum. At the Academy you can find local and international artists and thinkers engaging our students with contemporary debates and diverse methods of artistic practice. Owing to the histories of occupation in Palestine, the visual arts have had a difficult path of development, particularly in the absence of art schools, academies and funding. Due to these factors there is general a lack of understanding of the important role that art can play in Palestinian society. Art is a powerful intervention tool that raises awareness, and develops new knowledge on social and cultural issues. It creates an arena for thought via the visualization of ideas. Like any other field, art needs constant development, empowerment and mobilization in order to benefit society. Cultural expression is an important tool in articulating identity and the Academy aims to mobilize this potential in the direction of genuine creative and social development, particularly as the rich potential for the development of art in Palestine remains currently untapped.

Nieuw Dakota is a platform for contemporary art on the IJ in Amsterdam North. The gallery organises exhibitions and projects in collaboration with collectors, galleries, institutions and other players in the international art world. Nieuw Dakota seeks a wider audience involved in the art world, with the aim to increase private participation in contemporary art.

With its changing presentations of local and international artists in collaboration with galleries, curators and other organisations, Nieuw Dakota intends to support and promote the market for contemporary art in the Netherlands. The education program and special activities for its Pioneer Club play an important role. Another aspect of Nieuw Dakota’s projects is the presentation of private collections. Nieuw Dakota showcases the collections of passionate art lovers, aiming to inspire others to begin their own. Nieuw Dakota is situated at the NDSM wharf. Reach us using the free ferry to NDSM from Amsterdam Central Station. Free entrance.

The Sandberg Instituut is the postgraduate department of the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam. It offers Master’s programmes in Fine Arts, Interior Architecture, Applied Art and Design. We keep our departments relatively small, with an average of 20 students per programme. This allows us to make the courses flexible and open to initiatives from students and third parties. The course directors are prominent artists, designers and curators with international practices. They invite (guest) tutors who are able to challenge the students to critically reflect on their profession, their work and their progress.

Ramallah is a Palestinian city in the central West Bank located 10 km (6 miles) north of Jerusalem at an average elevation of 880 meters above sea level, adjacent to al-Bireh. It currently serves as the de facto administrative capital of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA). Ramallah was historically an Arab Christian town. Today Muslims form the majority of the population of nearly 27,092 in 2007, with Christians making up a significant minority.

Ramallah municipality provides its services and cultural and social programs to the society through its main facilities that include the municipality building, public services centers, cultural and entertainment facilities, and libraries which aim at improving the level of services provided to the public on the one side, and the level of cultural and social awareness and supporting initiatives, activities and creative people on the other. This system constitutes a method serving the municipality in cultural, social and services areas, as well as in creating an environment capable of absorbing the programs and activities of the city through communication with the different categories of the society and providing them with its services.

As one of the leading institutions for contemporary art in Europe, without a permanent collection, WIELS presents temporary exhibitions by national and international artists, both emerging and more established. WIELS is a site of creation and dialogue, in which art and architecture form the bases for a discussion about current events and issues, not only through the exhibition programme, but also through a host of complementary activities.

WIELS opened its doors in 2007, in a restored former brewery from the 1930s – designed by Belgian architect Adrien Blomme – and the idea of